


Cain Instincts

by StrawhatsAndDelibirds



Series: Modern verse [17]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, brother on brother violence, not the way you expect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-17 22:49:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21950980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrawhatsAndDelibirds/pseuds/StrawhatsAndDelibirds
Summary: Sometimes sacred lines are crossed and you go batshit.
Series: Modern verse [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1571110
Kudos: 17





	Cain Instincts

Most of the times they hung out were at home. It was the easiest and cheapest way to do things. Ace was the only one with a steady source of income, and Sabo was pretty sure that whatever Luffy was doing was illegal. But most of their free time was spent with their friends and whatever it was that Luffy did. 

Tonight was different. There wasn’t a special occasion or anything. It was just a heat of the moment thing, and now they were at some club. They were going to eat bad food, get drunk, and probably pass out on the Uber back to their place. It was going to be a great time. 

They’d sit themselves down at one of the booths and Sabo would leave his jacket there as a form of dibs since he was the only one with a jacket. There wasn’t a force alive that could make either of his brothers dress appropriately for the season. Sabo had learned that long ago. In an act of faux solidarity, they both took off their shirts as their own dibs. They were assholes, and that was another thing that Sabo had learned long ago. 

Fortunately Shanks owned this bar, and he liked them so odds were they could get away with a lot more shit. Sabo would try to keep it to a minimum, because there was nothing worse than having people treat you differently because of your connections. If they were going to treat him differently, it was going to be because of his own actions. None of anyone else’s. 

But there was no stopping his brothers, who were doing this to be assholes to him specifically. His layers were his own business thank you very much. No amount of brotherly peer pressure was going to change him. 

Teasing aside, they were gonna eat before they drank and got stupid. They were adults now, so they were all going to pitch in for their own stuff. At least while they were sober. Receipts showed that Ace bought them drinks while they were drunk, despite memories of buying them drinks himself. 

“So who’s gonna get drunk first?” Ace asked, knowingly about to start some shit. 

“Well if I’m going off what I know about us, it’s going to be you. And then you’re gonna go hard for half an hour, then crash and be sound asleep for the next twelve hours.” Because it had been a while since they all drank together. Probably meant that he was going to have to stay a level of sober, if not completely. 

“Why me? Luffy’s the same as I am, and he’s smaller. Obviously it’s going to be him.” Ace insisted. 

“What?! I can handle my booze way better than you!” Luffy yelled, making Sabo wish those two weren’t right beside each other and out of elbowing range. 

“Oh he’s also going to be dead to the world for twelve hours. The difference is that he drinks more often than you do. You barely drink as it is, so he’s got more practice than you.” Luffy took this very small win to blow a raspberry at Ace. 

“Well what about you? Why do you think you’re going to handle it better than us?” 

“Cause one of us has to drag the lifeless corpses of the others back to our apartment after you both pass out.” It seemed pretty obvious. Even if they didn’t have a car to drive, you needed to be conscious to order an uber. And also they lived on the top of their building. 

There was still a good chance that Sabo was going to ask some of Luffy’s friends to help them up the stairs. It was a good idea, but even when he was only a little tipsy he didn’t make the best choices. Some would say he didn’t make the best choices sober either. To which he would say “shut up, Koala and Ace.”

Their insane amount of food arrived. It always seemed like a lot when it was ordered, but Sabo knew how this went. Once they started eating, it’d disappear in a moment. He understood that much from day one in their house when they figured out how hard groceries were. 

He didn’t pay much attention to them while he ate. Talking pretty much came to a standstill while they ate. Even if they were certain one of the others wouldn’t steal their food, they were already preoccupied with eating their own food. That being said, despite how much he loved his brothers, he didn’t trust them a fucking bit not to eat his food. Not even when they were kids did he trust them. 

That’s why he was unaware of what caused the sparks that ignited into a complete beating. It was a solid few punches in when he noticed, and although he wasn’t going to admit it, it was largely because the plates his food was on started to move as the dishes on their side were pushed away. 

To Sabo’s complete shock, for once the person on the end of the brotherly beat down wasn’t Luffy. They had pushed themselves out of the booth and onto the floor. It must’ve caught Ace off guard, because he was the one back on the floor getting his teeth punched in by Luffy. 

The shock of the event delayed Sabo a lot more than he would’ve liked. There were three more solid swings before he could get his legs to move him out of his seat. Fortunately Luffy weighed less than Ace, so he was way easier to pick up and pull away from the fight. There were a few more solid swings before he stopped. 

Sabo could feel the eyes on them right now. This was embarrassing. They weren’t usually this bad. They could normally keep this sort’ve thing to themselves and sort it out at home. It was like they were children again. 

“What happened?” Luffy asked, as if he wasn’t pulled off Ace for trying to get his nose to bend the other way. 

“You were trying to beat the shit outta Ace. You weren’t even drunk yet, what happened?” 

“I just remember he was trying to eat my food, and now I’m here.” That was a not great sentence, Sabo wasn’t quite sure how he felt about understanding that feeling. 

Ace sat up, wiping the blood from his now possibly broken nose. 

“Cain instinct.” He said sagely. It was rough when he was the wise one here. That hadn’t happened in years. This was a bad night all around. 

He was about to say something else, when he saw a waitress approaching them cautiously. He sighed. Special treatment could only get you so far sometimes. Seems they crossed the line. 

“I’ll cover the bill, and we’ll leave. Don’t worry.” God this was embarrassing. Getting kicked out of a bar sober was rough. 

Though he did understand the cain instinct now. His brothers had better be ready when they got home. 


End file.
